Ahoy my fellow Pirates Wikians!
Yes Pirates fans, after an incredibly long break after On Stranger Tides was released, Captain Jack is back! In a previous blog post I made last month, I posted some updates of the newest Disney attraction, particularly relating to the Pirates movies: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow. Now, after many months of waiting, I'm happy to say here and now that Walt Disney Imagineering has done it again and it's now officially opened! Though I can't really understand why they would have an official opening after the attraction's been open for weeks now.(to quote Gibbs: Everyone's thinking it, I'm just saying it. xD)
Anyway, to celebrate the official opening, I'm doing two things:
- Making a tribute to an adventure with a very-much missed Johnny Depp as Captain Jack.
- Revealing a little sneak peek of BIG changes we're making on the Wiki for the next year or so as per a very important occasion for some diehard fans. But we'll get to that later.
Now to get into great detail of both topics...
Celebration
We've come a long way since May when The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow attraction was first announced. Some believed it to have gone down to Davy Jones' Locker because of the previous accidental announcement(oops). But around the fall, there were signs which led to a HUGE update that those working at Walt Disney Imagineering confirmed that the attraction was happening and will open on December 2012. Now to the surprise of some, the attraction had a soft opening in mid-November(nearly half a month before its official opening). Although the attraction was only in the process of finishing touches, it had sparked some interest and hope for the best. In this person's opinion, why wouldn't it be?...it's got Johnny Depp as Captain Jack himself!
Courtesy of the oh-so-reliable Disney Parks Blog, I present a behind-the-scenes look at the attraction:
For those new of this attraction, you can learn more through the following articles:
- The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow – Here you'll learn of what is currently known of the attraction including it's past, what happens in it, and of course what neat film props are seen.
- The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow/Gallery – A gallery of images from the attraction and videos relating to the attraction. Note: Because this is currently a new attraction, we may not have everything as of yet.
I hope everyone has a great time celebrating the grand opening of The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow. Enjoy! :)
Wiki's Design
Now for the part that really goes into uncharted waters. As some of you may know, next year is the 10th anniversary of the release of the first Pirates film, The Curse of the Black Pearl. And because this is somewhat of a big deal amongst Pirates fans, me and the other admin (Captain Teague and Uskok) agree that a change in the Wiki's background may be possible.
With all that being said...we're not changing everything on the Wiki, nor are we doing it right now. Today, we've only changing the background(where the content is) and the Wiki buttons(edit and the navigation buttons) as a sneak peek of what is to come, mainly to see any reactions from viewers to the change...hopefully positive. Everything else, which I think is only the pictured background and (maybe) the Wiki's wordmark, I'm waiting until the new year comes. And the plan is to keep this look for (hopefully) the entire year of 2013. But whether we'll be keeping this look after the year is over depends; mostly on reactions. Me personally, I do prefer to keep the look we have now, but I wouldn't mind making a change for a special occasion.
Lastly, to close the discussion, I like to announce that today, two POTC Wiki countdowns will begin with countdown clocks on the Wiki's Main Page. We will be counting down not only for the 10-year anniversary of CotBP's release, but for the 46th anniversary of the opening of the original Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean(which opened way back in 1967 in Disneyland).
And now, having pretty much covered all that needed be covered...what say you all? Are you happy to see Captain Jack in a newest Disney attraction? More importantly, do you like the Wiki's new look so far? There will be more to come - from background images to all sorts of piratey goodness!